650 KW Terkiana Mini Hydel Project on Holybein

Audit Analysis

This 650 kW mini-hydro CDM project in India was validated by TÜV NORD CERT with an investment additionality test, but the validation report contains 22 material findings that seriously question the financial assumptions underpinning additionality (inflated project costs, excessive ROE, non-conforming tariffs). The monitoring record covers only three months of the ten-year crediting period, no verified ERR figure is available, and the grid emission factor dates from 2009. Multiple contradictions across documents—including the baseline method, crediting period start date, and the claimed ERR—undermine confidence in the project's data integrity.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠22 material findings in the validation report question the investment additionality test, including project cost at Rs.122 mn/MW (more than double CERC's Rs.50 mn benchmark) and ROE above 25% versus the 14% CERC recommendation, suggesting the financial case may have been constructed to demonstrate non-viability
• ⚠The claimed ERR of 1,043 tCO2e contradicts a figure of 33,129 tCO2e within the same monitoring report (2021), a 32-fold discrepancy that cannot be reconciled without further documentation
• ⚠The baseline method is recorded as 'jurisdictional' in the monitoring report but 'project-specific' in the validation report, creating uncertainty about which baseline was actually applied
• ⚠The grid emission factor of 0.84 tCO2/kWh is sourced from 2009, more than a decade before the monitoring report date, and the validation report explicitly flagged that it needed correction to a generation-weighted three-year average
• ⚠No verified ERR figure is available in the extracted record, and the monitoring period covers only three months (Oct–Dec 2012) of the ten-year crediting period

Credit Vintages